Ghost Rider: Fallout
by An Xmen Member
Summary: 50 years have passed since the bombs fell. The Marvel universe has never been more shaken. Lines are drawn and loved ones are lost in the ruined wasteland that is now Earth.
1. Chapter 1

They had done it. For years people were in fear of what men that held power but didn't hold brains would do. They had pressed the button, and the entire world retaliated. Not many people left who could recount what happened to the world, or the people who had the damned misfortune of living when it happened, and the even more unfortunate who lived afterwards. Not even the people known as the "World's Greatest Heroes" could do anything to stop it. The entire world had been blanketed in nuclear fire. The Earth was all but dead and the people left behind weren't much different, they just happened to still be walking and didn't have the fortune of death, so now they live.

It was at least 50 years by now. 5 decades had passed since the missiles launched and turned the once beautiful blue planet they called Earth into a wasteland. All technology they could have used to leave the planet in search of someplace else to call home was destroyed within the first day of nuclear war. Many of the Earth's greatest heroes and minds were either killed during the initial strikes or didn't survive the nuclear fallout after the blasts. 48 hours is all it took to destroy everything that was and ever will be.

In all unlikeliness, the people that had done the best for themselves and had survived en masse was the mutants. They had a leg-up genetically speaking already, and the radiation in the atmosphere had mutated them further, made their numbers higher, and each individual mutant became more powerful. There weren't many others that had survived, there were rumors that the Hulk had been sighted several times, but those rumors sound more like the sasquatch or the lockness monster. It was also possible that The Sentry, and other Omega class meta-humans were able to survive the blasts and the radiation. Sadly, many other heroes and villains did not make it out alive. The bomb that hit New York was especially devastating, according to several accounts the very first hero to die was Spider-Man. He was sitting down in an outside restaurant with his aunt and step uncle, the nuke landed 3 blocks away. There was nothing he could do. Other people who didn't make it were the likes of Daredevil, Iron Fist, and even Captain America.

Captain America was a definite. Considering the people that were left had found his shield laying over a skeleton of a woman and a child, even when he knew they would not survive, he still tried to save them. Now there were a large group of wastelanders calling themselves, "Children of the Star." They had found the shield of Captain America and dedicated an entire religion to the artifact, a joking man would find it ironic that Captain America, who touted liberty and freedom, became a tool of worship and adulation.

"Wake up, Aiden. Wake up, come on. You need to go help your father carry the water back from the river." The sunlight was stinging with its incredible brightness. The thin bed stank lightly and Aidan's sweating back made it stick to the dirty mattress.

"Ok, mom. I'm getting up now." Aidan had sat up slowly, his exhaustion had made his body feel like it weighed 1,000 pounds. He slowly forced himself up off the bed. And walked into what was supposed to be a living room. Their "house" was several tin plates welded together into a cube shaped building, the roof leaked, it could get to be scorching hot or icy cold, depending on the time of year. There was one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, flickering an orange light across the room. Aidan sat at the dirty table as his mother put a dinged metal plate with some fried egg and bacon on it.

"The chickens are doing ok, so far. But we're getting short on hogs. The goddamn radiation, it makes it hard for these damn animals to mate. They get pregnant and spawn out mutated monsters." Aidan's mother and father weren't the type to observe decorum, nobody really was anymore. The population at large had tried to maintain some semblance of civilization of old but the new norm of life was what most people knew.

"So, how many pigs are left?"

Aidan's mother had sat down and started eating some egg.

"A couple dozen left, but that's going down before you know it. It could last us maybe the rest of year before we have to find something else to keep us fed, we can't live the rest of our lives eating eggs. You know Aidan, did I ever tell you the time your grandfather met Reed Richards?"

His mother had told this story 100 times, it was the only part of her grandfather she had left. She tells this story to anyone who will listen and sometimes late at night she tells it to herself, perhaps to keep her from going crazy.

"No mom, please tell me."

Aidan's mother finished her eggs and caught her breathe.

"Well my grandfather was a local scientist, working on agriculture stuff. He worked in a very small lab at the local college and one day there was like this huge outbreak of this virus. It was making people in the town drop like flies and nobody knew where it had come from. It got to the point where it was national news and these super people called the Avengers had actually come, I couldn't believe it. I was a little girl at the time standing behind my mother's leg. I saw Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all standing in room together drinking coffee like it was the most ordinary thing ever. They had brought it Hank Pym and Reed Richards and my father worked with them because he was the first person to actually get a sample of the virus. 48 hours and my grandfather, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards had not only made a vaccine but a cure that actually made people more healthier than they were before they got sick."

Aidan just let her finish the rest of the story, he tried to be an at tentative son but sometimes mom's Avengers story just got on his nerves but he understand it was her only connection to the old world. She had Aidan very late in life, her early 40s and now Aidan was an adolescent. A young man now of 18; Aidan put his and his mother's dinged up metal plates into the washing basin and walked out the front door made of wood and held together with duct tape. He walked down the lane to go meet his father who most likely waiting on his favorite rock. The town he lived in was usually called different names but the one that Aidan had come to know and the one he liked the best was Tin City. The name was appropriate considering most of the town was comprised of Tin and metal shacks. There were several small outdoor restaurants with broken chairs and tables that were missing one leg, the people sitting down at them eating their fried squirrel stew or vulture fricassee.

There was a small school in the remnants of some old building from the old world, a lot of people thought it was maybe a small clinic or hospital at some point, there were no medical supplies of any kind though, anything in there that would've been of any use was picked clean from the floor to the ceiling a long time ago. Children of all ages went in every day for their lessons until they reached the age of adulthood in the community, 16, then they would go to work with their parents. They didn't have a choice, either they became a productive member of society or they'd be asked to leave and not come until they had something to offer the community. It was a hard life, but people found small pleasures where they could. They would hold small dances and parties every other week, alcohol and food would flow and people would dance the night away as bands played on hand made instruments. Drinking and eating, dancing and smiling, the smiling of people who had forgotten their troubles and for one night…felt like their lives weren't so bad.

Aidan had crossed the fence that signified town limit and walked towards the river where he found his father waiting.

"Father, sorry I'm late." His father stood up from the large rock he fancied to sit on whenever he was out here. He walked over and put a hand on his son's shoulders.

"I know you're not rushing to come out here and help your old man carrying buckets around, but it's something we got to do. If we don't get this in the town's water still everyone goes thirsty for the week and we're the ones to blame for it. You have a responsibility to this town, everyone is everyone's family." Aidan nodded. He never liked when his father started with his whole responsibility and family speech, it made him feel that his father was so disappointed in him. Nothing else was said between them as they started loading up carts pulled by donkeys with giant containers of water. There was at least 1000 pounds on each cart, each pulled by several donkeys. Poor animals, having to work so hard like this, several donkeys in the past couple had keeled over and dropped dead from exhaustion and malnutrition.

Before they knew it, the entire day was over and the sun was setting.

"Aidan, I'm going to go ahead back to town, make sure the donkeys are put back in their stables and fed. I don't trust that Jim Henderson, he eyes those donkeys in a way I don't even want to think about." Aidan nodded and waved his father goodbye. It only took an hour at best before he was finished, the donkeys were feeding and watered and corralled into their pens safe and sound. He closed the large tin door to the old shed that used to wooden but was patched up with tin sheets and tarps. He had walked over the hill leading the main road to Tin City.

He saw the smoke first, the screams came later. The next thing he saw was the fire, bright and painting across the night sky. They must have been several stories tall, plumes of red and orange dotting across the clearing. The screams were the last thing he heard, there were many and they were loud. Aidan's first thought was of his parents and darted off at full speed to rescue them. It wasn't long before Aidan had gotten into town; he stopped, gasping for air in between his shouts for his mother and his father. Aidan had never seen a dead person before…well a dead person that wasn't killed by some kind of radiation related illness. What used to be a person was ripped in half and laid on the ground to bleed to death. Aidan wished he spare the time to try to help but his parents were priority number one to him.

He made it to their small tin house, only to see it housing a large fire shooting into the sky. Aidan then saw them out of the corner of his eye. His parents lay dead on the floor, motionless, and mangled apart. Aidan fell to his knees in front of them.

"No…how could this happen…what happened…?"

Aidan couldn't control the tears streaming from his eyes and didn't hear the footsteps coming up behind him.

"Just what the fuck are you crying about kid?"

Aidan was kicked to the floor, his face in front of his mother's. The expression of fear and panic as she died, the last face she ever made as she took her last breath was only a breathe away from Aidan's face. He darted back around and to his feet to the person who had kicked him. He wasn't alone, there were several of them, and all dressed similar in salvaged clothing and armor made from wood and tin. Their leader stepped forward towards Aidan with a small grin of satisfaction on his face.

"Did…did you do this? Did you sack this town? WHY!?"

The attacker chuckled to himself and his cohorts; they all started laughing as well.

"Why? We were just looking for a good time. We weren't planning on causing trouble; we just wanted some food and some girls…the younger the better. They denied a nice little 10 year old and I obviously wasn't going to let that disrespect go. I was honor bound to kill everyone in the whole town, I suppose those 2 down there are your parents. I have to commend your father kiddo; after I killed your mother your father actually decked me in the face. See?"

The raider turned his face to show a black eye and a small cut across the side of his face. He looked Aidan right in the eyes with a piercing gaze, as if he had just impaled his soul on a spit.

"Are you going to kill me?"

The raider turned towards his friends and started running away.

"Nah. I actually usually leave one or 2 alive on purpose. So they could tell the story of the Iron Runners, my little group of rebels. Oh, by the way my name is Maven. If you ever want to join my little merry band or make an attempt of revenge which I'll tell you is a very bad idea…either way. You have a nice day kid."

Aidan was overcome was frustration and rage and charged Maven, not even realizing he was outnumbered and outclassed but he didn't care, this man killed his parents and everything he ever knew. Dying trying to exact revenge felt like a good idea at the time.

Aidan launched himself to get some momentum but was stopped in mid-air by Maven's finger. He held him in the air and grinned that sickening grin again. Aidan was awestruck as he would held still in the air, the fires roaring around them, lighting up Maven's scars on his face, his dark hair and muscular build.

"You…you're a…a…"

Maven smiled.

"A mutant. Say it with me now."

Maven threw him into a small barn, crashing it around him. Maven walked over and picked him out of the rubble. He then delivered several punches to the face and mid-section while he lay defenseless. He then used his powers again to send him flying across the clearing grinding into the ground the entire way. Maven slowly but surely briskly walked to Aidan and with his finger suspended him back into the air.

"Now I got to tell you kid, you got balls, brass balls but you had to realize that wouldn't work out for you right? Look what I did to your town. You think my friends helped? No…no just me. I did this all by myself and they watched."

Aidan tried to reach for Maven's neck but his arms were restrained back to his sides.

"Well, you were fun kid. I told you that you could've lived, but you made your choice so far be it from me to deny you the prize you won."

Maven reached up to his neck and Aidan felt himself choking, the air being sucked from his lungs. His vision started to blur; the air started to get cold.

"_So this must be what death feels like. I'm sorry mother, I'm sorry father. I'm sorry I let you down." _

He felt the grip easing up on his neck as he fell to the ground. He didn't really here the screams coming from Maven's group. Aidan oriented himself and looked up, Maven was launching several wooden beams and other detritus at…something. He stood up and saw several of the raiders impaled clean through with giant metal spears.

"What…the hell?"

Aidan heard one of the raiders say something, he didn't make it out. He didn't know if it was because he was almost choked to death, or the fighting was loud, but he could swear it sounded like he yelled, "X-Men"

"We'll finish this another day, killer. See you soon."

Maven ran away past Aidan, with what was left of the raiders of Tin City. Aidan got his feet and saw them running like the devil was at their heels.

"I'm sorry I didn't get here faster."

Aidan turned around and saw a younger looking man, platinum hair peeking out under a helmet that protected his head. He wore a uniform that was dark red and blue with a large red letter "X" over his heart.

"Who…who are you?"

The young man stepped forward and shook his hand.

"Well my birth name is Martin. Martin Lensherr but most people call me by my grandfather's old codename: Magneto."

Aidan looked down at the ground unable to look Magneto in the face.

"My parents. They were all I had. They were all I had in this world."

Magneto walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, there's place I can take you. It's a place that's especially for displaced people like you, people that have lost their family to sickness or…mutants. I hate sharing people like that with my race. All they do is hurt others with no regard for human life, which when you get down to it, it's all we are. We're all the same and there's a place I can take you where there will be other people like you. Would you be interested in something like that?"

Aidan thought it over for a moment but he knew deep down there was nothing for him now in Tin City or rather what's left of Tin City.

"Yeah. Yeah I'd be interested. Just let me have a few hours to bury my parents ok?"

Magneto agreed and waiting at the entrance to the town, a path that Aidan walked just that morning when he thought his life normal but now in the span of a day his life has become anything but the normal life that he used to know. Aidan sat down in front of his parents' graves that he dug himself and just played with his thoughts. He knew that it was time to go, he didn't want to leave Magneto waiting for much longer. Aidan placed his hands on his parents' grave markers.

"Mom…Dad. I promise I'll never forget all the things you taught me. I'll…," tears started welling in his eyes, "I'll never forget you. I promise."

Aidan turned away and grabbed whatever possessions he had that were salvageable and put them in a rucksack, throwing it over his back he left what was left of his house. He met Magneto at the entrance; he was waiting just where he said he would.

"You ready to go?"

Aidan nodded.

"Yeah. So…where are we going?"

Magneto stood up from the wooden fence he was sitting on.

"A place that the X-Men created as a sanctuary to not just displaced mutants but whoever would need asylum from forces that would otherwise…well…"

Magneto pointed his head at the town, the smoldering smoke from the previous night's events.

"Yeah ok. So what's this place called?"

Magneto turned back at Aiden.

"It's based off an old sanctuary type place mutants had created before the bombs fell. It's called New Utopia."

Aidan nodded and motioned for them to get going. It was a long trip ahead of them and they weren't going to get there sitting down twiddling their thumbs.


	2. On the Road

They had been traveling for almost a week. One thing that sucked a lot about the world ending was that there wasn't much transportation left. After starting to run low on supplies they decided to stop into a small village to resupply.

"So how long you think it'll be before we get there?"

Martin; or rather "Magneto" was looking over some medical bandages in small shop.

"Well, if we're hoofing it the rest of the way it might be a couple days. If he can find a carriage or some other form of transportation it could be a lot sooner. Depends what happens. I've made journeys like this before; it's something that requires patience."

Aidan nodded and picked up some bandages and several containers of dried meats. Martin walked out to the stables to see if he could procure the use of a horse and carriage. Aidan finished the transactions for everything they would need, trading some of the small baubles that he could salvage from Tin City. Aidan walked out of the shop and ran into an old lady wearing a shawl over her head, most likely to protect herself from dust, it was windy today.

"Oh I'm sorry. Pardon me miss."

The old lady pulled her shawl back and revealed a wrinkled face. She also had what seemed like a glass eye as well, it crept Aidan out.

"It's ok young man, not many people notice me anymore."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Well I used to have a pretty good reputation around here but not anymore. You see I'm something of a clairvoyant and I used to make a fairly decent living telling fortunes but one day I made a mistake, just a small miscalculation with someone's fortune and everyone found out, now nobody will give me any business. I lost my home after being vandalized several times."

Aidan reached into his pocket pouch and handed her some apples.

"How about you tell me my fortune then? I'll pay you in food."

A big smile crept across her face as she placed the apples in her pack. She circled around Aidan several times before even saying anything.

"Oh yes, I see something very interesting. I feel…something very interesting."

She turned to his front and grabbed his arms and the smile left her face and she became very stern and serious.

"I see something in your future. You will be given a choice."

"What kind of choice?"

"The kind of choice that changes the world. I see a sword in your future."

"A sword?"

"Yes, a sword. A sword that will be either be used to protect…or destroy. The decision is up to you."

"Where do I find this sword?"

"You don't find it, it will find you. It will find you when you need it the most. You won't have a choice whether to accept it or not. The choice you will have to be a savior…or the destroyer."

Aidan walked around her and slowly backed away as she suddenly just kept chanting about the sword, it crept Aidan out and he quickly got away from her and went to go find Martin. He found him at the stables and he was able to procure a carriage for them.

"There you are, I was wondering if you had gotten lost or something."

"No…"

Martin asked him if everything was ok and Aidan said he was fine. They both got on the cart. Martin waved at the guy who sold him the carriage and the horse.

"You had enough money to pay for a full cart and horse?"

"Of course not."

"So how did you pay for this?"

"I told him that members of the X-Men would come and patrol the area around the town, they have to worry about raiders too around these parts everyone does."

"Are they really going to do that?"

"Probably not."

Martin snapped the reins and the horse pulled the cart in their direction. Martin told Aidan the story about how their original Utopia was in the West, but their new sanctuary lay in the North. It was naturally fortified by the mountainous regions and the cold winters, raiders and trespassers were discouraged from venturing too far North, at risk of picking up the ire of the X-Men and whatever else lived there.

The time had passed, Aidan had nodded off several times over the next few days but never once saw Martin doze off or even stop to eat something, and he had incredible stamina and endurance. It must have been his training as an X-Man and his mutant powers that gave him such endurance.

"Aidan? Aidan? Aidan hey wake up. AIDAN!"

Aidan jolted into consciousness. He had nodded off again in the back of the cart. He looked up and Martin while scratching his head.

"Hey what's the big deal? Are we there yet?"

"No. We're being followed. I think it's some of the indigenous wildlife."

Aidan sat up in the cart with concern on his face.

"Indigenous life? What the hell does that mean? Are we talking bunnies and rabbits or…?"

"The type of wildlife with a lot of teeth and gets hungry really fast. There are a lot of them, and they sound big. Probably mutated too, this won't turn out well if they take out the horse."

"You can handle them though right?"

"Yes, easily. But I don't know about protecting the horse."

Aidan pulled out a dagger.

"I know this isn't much but I'll do my best to protect the horse."

Martin chuckled.

"You're really dumb."

"Never had a day of formal education in my life."

The black dead trees started to rustle as they carted into a forest. They were really close now, Aidan could see there bright red eyes. They were like smoldering embers darting through the trees. It wasn't long before they had attacked. Giant mutated wolves, some of them had several heads on their bodies. Some didn't even have skin, leaving their hardened muscles and bones visible, they looked awful…and even worse…they looked hungry. Martin had jumped off the cart and pulled out several steel bars he had in his pack. Aidan remembered another story Martin told him, that his powers were similar to his grandfather's but different as well. As the original Magneto could control all metal, he could do it as well but take it one step further by changing their constitution and stretching them to the shape of his desire, most likely a side effect of the nuclear radiation mutating the X-Gene.

Martin had turned the steel into razor sharp projectiles, cycling them around and shooting at the wolves, they weren't intimidated and they weren't backing down. They continually attacked no matter how many Martin had dismembered to pieces. Dismembering them were the only to stop them; they were so powerful. One had broken away from the pack and started charging at the horse, it was neighing loudly and was obviously scared. Aidan jumped off the cart with his dagger and plunged it into wolf, knocking it on its side. It quickly got up and bit him on the shoulder. Aidan fell back as he saw his own blood dripping from the mouth of the over-sized wolf; it's second head was snapping wildly with hunger.

Aidan had gotten up, applying pressure to his shoulder to stop the bleeding. He backed away slowly as the wolf stepped toward him.

"Aidan! Watch out!"

Aidan didn't see the ditch behind him and he fell down through several blackened and rotted bushes, he felt like he was rolling and tumbling forever but he had fallen into what seemed like a cave. Aidan brought himself to his feet, the wolf must have lost track of him or Martin stopped him, either way he was safe from the wolf but he didn't know how to get out of the cave. The only opening out was straight up a 90 degree slope and with his shoulder the way it was, he wasn't going to be climbing up anything.

Aidan figured walking further into the cave; he might find another exit poking out. He was sure Martin would come looking for him but maybe there was something in the cave he could use to climb up. It was silent in the cave, no signs of life at all. Aidan didn't know if that was scarier, that he was in a cave in complete darkness or that there was no sounds at all, even his own footsteps didn't make a sound down here. The silence was deafening and Aidan was slowly starting to despair. He had decided to turn around and walk back but there was only more blackness behind him, he must've made a turn somewhere, now he had no idea where he was anymore.

"Hello?"

He felt the sound disappearing as it left his throat. There was something wrong here, this cave wasn't normal. Shivers shot up his spine and he started running in one direction, hoping there would be an exit but his fear and hysteria got the better off him, didn't see something on the ground protruding out. Aidan tripped over himself fell on his face. Aidan rolled over onto his back holding his face, there were stars in his eyes and his senses hadn't come back. He sat up to see what he had tripped over. A skull half broken into stared back at him, Aidan jumped when he first saw it. He had seen a dead person before, it was something people had to live with in a place like Tin City but he'd never seen someone so decomposed before. He stood up and walked over to the skull, the rest of the skeleton laid behind it. It looked like an ordinary human skeleton except there was a beaten and torn leather jacket around the ribcage. Aidan had never seen a leather jacket before, most cows were born without the upper layer of their skin, and the leather quality was terrible. This one however looked like it was from before the bombs.

He knelt down to pull the jacket from the skeleton it was stuck on something at first but Aidan was able to wrestle it loose. Aidan was pulling and tugging but stopped when he saw that the skull had turned around and was looking at him, Aidan tried not to think of it, he's jostling the skeleton he thought to himself. The tugging would turn it around. That's the answer he gave himself as he continued to try to remove the jacket. He felt his body temperature increase; he didn't notice how hot it was. He was sweating profusely and he just wanted the damn jacket.

A sound started to pass his ears, like a whisper. It was soft and seemingly coming from nowhere. Aidan looked back down at the skull and saw 2 small in the skull's eyes. A bright white light washed over him.

"Aidan! Aidan are you ok? Aidan wake the hell up!"

Aidan opened his eyes and looked up at Martin looking down on him.

"Hey man, you alright?"

Martin helped him up. Aidan looked around and he was back on the path where they were attacked by the wolves, the path was now littered with the corpses of mutated wolves.

"Was it a dream?"

"What are you talking about?"

Aidan looked down and saw the leather jacket around him.

"Where did you get that?"

"I don't know. I uh…it felt like a dream…how…how long was I gone?"

"You had fallen into the bushes and I finished up with the wolves and I turned back around and you were on the road again. I saw you get bitten by one of the wolves but your shoulder-look- it's fine now."

Aidan looked under the jacket and saw that it was true, the shoulder where the wolf chomped down on him was fully healed, the bite marks still in the shirt but the wound underneath was gone.

"I don't know what's going on here but I think we should get out here. This place gives me the willies."

Martin agreed and they both got on the cart that Martin successfully protected and they were on their way again.

"It should just be a little while now, after this forest it's a straight shot of desert."

Aidan could hear the whispers in his ear again, they were unintelligible but they were inviting and were welcome. He couldn't put his finger on it but he felt like whatever was whispering to him knew him in some say, like an old friend that was missing. This familiar yet unfamiliar feeling made a weird pit in his stomach and he didn't like the feeling.

"Are you positive that it'd just be a straight shot now?"

Martin nodded in the affirmative.

"_What happened in that cave? Why can't I remember what happened and how does Martin not know what happened to me? How did I get out the cave and my wound was healed? Too many questions and no answers. I hope someone can help me when I get to Utopia. I really hope someone can help me…"_


End file.
